Bottle-filling apparatus



F. W. MULLER.

BOTTLE FILLING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 21, I919.

Patented July 12, 1921.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

Jm/E/vm F. W. MULLER.

BOTTLE FILLING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED OCT 21, 1919.

1,384,537. Pawnted July 12, 1921.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

'IIIIIIIIII JNVE/VTOR Attamgv,

ratus for filling bottles and more UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

. Specification of Letters latent.

Patented July 12, 1921.

Application flied October 21, 1919. Serial No. 832,246.

To all whom it may concern:

Be itknown that I, citizen of the United States of America, residing at Hoboken, county of Hudson, State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Bottle-Filling Apparatus, oil which the following is a specification.

My invention relates generally to-appa- K81131011- larly applies to such apparatus w on operating on a gas-charged liquid. In handling such liquid, which is usually charged with carbonic acid gas, it is customary to maintain in the tank holding the liquid fed to the bottles, a counter pressure of carbonic acid gas to reduce as far as possible the loss of gas from the liquid itself, the object being to get the liquid into the bottles with as high a gaseous content as possible. Usually this counter pressure of carbomc acid gas has been created by allowing a ortion of the gas contained in the liqui to be liberated in and trapped in the bottling tank when the same is first put into operation for the day or for any particular run.

The carbonated liquid is received from the carbonating apparatus under a pressure of approximately pounds. It is necessary to reduce this pressure in the bottling apparatus, as otherwise the bottlesmight be burst by the pressure and the fluid leak also through the joints of the connecting pipes. It is customary to reduce this pressure toap roximately 20pounds, by passing the fluid t rough a pressure reducing valve 'as it enters the bottling tank. As a result, the liquid is violently agitated by being forced through the small passageways of this valve, enters the bottling tank in a small jet of high velocity, and is generally subject to such violent agitation that a large part of its gaseous content escapes.

Each empty bottle of course contains air at the moment it is connected to the tank for filling and this air must be displaced by the entering liquid and passed u into the space in the tank above the li ui level. As there is a constant increase in t e volume ofthis air in the tank, as bottle after bottle is filled and its contents transferred to the tank, it is necessary to have a blow-off valve through which the surplus air can escape at a predetermined counter-pressure of approximately 20 pounds to the square inch.

FRED. W. MtiLLER, a.

its particular specific gravit the bottle filling apparatus wit apparatus which is of the rotary Heretofore this blow-oil valve has been placed directly on or in the bottling tank itself and by its intermittent action it produces sudden and considerable variations in counter-pressure in the tank, and every time the pressure drops suddenly as the result of the opening of the blow-oil valve, there is a further tendency to liberate a considerable amount of the gases contained in the liquid, which mixes with the air from. the bottles and blows oil through the blow-ofi safety valve.

My invention avoids these difiiculties by employing a separate supply of gas to gen- 'erate the counter-pressure on the imtial operation of the apparatus and delivering said gas to the particular zone in the tan which it would naturallyseek by reason of ts particular specific gravity, and by having the exhaust connection for the excess air opening from that zone of the tank which the air would naturally seek by reason of and then instead of placing the blow-o valve directly on or in thebottling tank, I place it on a separate second tank of considerable capacty, and connect the blow-oil. pipe to this second tank, the pi e being of relatively small cross-section. referably also I connect, by a similar pipe, the gas zone of the bottling. tank with a corresponding zone of the second tank. Thebest formof apparatus at present. known to me employing my invention is illustrated in the accom a-.

nying two sheets of drawings, in whic Figure 1 is a sideelevation and partial section of one standard form of bottle filling appratus equipped with my invention;

1g. 21s an enlarged detail of the stuflin box system connecting the rotary arts 0 h the rigid connections thereof;

Fig. 3 is a cross section on line 3-3 of Fig 2;

ig. 4 is a cross section on line 4-4, of Fig. 2, and

Fig.- 5 is a cross section on line 5-5 of Fig. 2.

Throughout the drawings like reference characters indicate like parts.

A represents generally the bottle filling type having an annular or doughnut-shaped tank C, supported on a spider S, in which the liquid to be employed in filling the bottles vantageous usual bottle handhn' g ported on the centra is contained. The carbonated 1i uid is a plied from any suitable source t ugh t e piiipe X, which has a rotary st box B' a ording connection to the verti sectlon of iping which is branched at X and X to eliver the liquid to the interior of the tates on the base Z, and on which column the spider S is mounted. The bottle handling apparatus as represented com%ises the vertically movable bottle supports R,

automatically raised and lowered by airv pressure 0 rating in cylinders P, P. The

f and connected to pipe L, and

compresse air is supplied to these cylinders P, P, through the pipe IQ which is rigid any suitable source of supply of compressed air and which communicates through rotary stufling box B with the ipe Q carried by the rotating ortion of t 0 bottle filling apparatus and w ich in turn communicates with the circular conduit Q from which branch connections to the cylinders P--P are made.

The air contained in each bottle escapes to the upper art of the tank'C, through c counter-pressure of gas is admitted through I ipe 1, to the bottle to expel the air there rom. The upper end of pipe 1 is below the normal up er boundary of the gas zone in the tank 8, while vent L discharges at or above said upper bound ary of the gas zone, the broken line 9.

The foregoing described apparatus is of standard indicatedin Fig. 1 by bottles placed upon the supports R are antomatically lifted and connected with the liquid-containing zone of the tank C, so that the air in said bottles 'may be dischar' d from them into the tank, through ventit, and a portion'of the li uid in and tank flow down into the bott es and fill Y them.

In order to prevent the escape u on the initial operation of the apparatus, 0 an unnecessarily large amount of the carbonic column D which ro-' type and its operation need not be "set out in etail further than to say that box ,shownin'detailinF' 2M5. The sleeve J enters the rotating lgs. -box U and that in turn connects with the branch plpe N, which revolves with and I I 1nto the interior of tank 0, at a int F slightly above the level of the liqui in said tank and below the normal upper boundary of the gas zone in said tank, indicated by the broken line 9.

It is evident that as a series of bottles are filled, there will'be a considerable accumulation of air from said bottles, in tank C, which excess air must be. gotten rid of to prevent the creation of an increased counter-pressure which would interfere with the admission of, h ther supplies of the carbonated liquid. Also any excess gas liberated from the liquid itself must be removed for the same reason. Heretofore it has been customary to place some kind of a blow-off safety valve directl on or in the tank C, to allow this air an gas to blow of directly through this valve. This, however, as beforeexplained, has resulted in violent and sudden fluctuations inthe pres sure in tank C, so that an unnecessarily large amount of gas has been liberated and blown off with the air. My invention overcomes this difliculty by dischar the surplus air' through a pipe M, o 'relativel small cross-section, having its inlet at near the roof of tank C, at which point the air Pi e talik C, connects with the intermediate sleeve I of the stufling box system, and through it to the exterior stationary pipe M, which extends to the top of a separate tank T of relatively large capacity. The safety blow-off valve 0 is placed on the to of this tank T. Pipe N is also connec to tank T, preferably near the bottom 'i li ufii ng b0 te e st x sys m necessa nect the rotatin branch pipes M? N, and Q with the rigi 'external pipes M, N, Q,

dischgfed from the'bottles tends to collect.

to con-. i

which of course revolves with the com rises the following parts: the lower f stuflii:

boxB', carried.on the standard G,

exten mg upward from the rotating-bottle filling apparatus, connects the vertical section of the'stationa pipe Q with the rotating section Q. e rotating stufling box makes an air tight joint :between the star tionar pipe section Q and the rotatin interme iate sleeve 1 to the interior of w ich the pipes M, M, are connected. The rotating stufling box U makes a'tight joint with the stationary outer sleeve J, to which the stationary 1 N is connected and this stufling box has its interior connected with the rotating branch pipe N. The rotating stufling boxW makes .an' air tight connection between the upper 'ortion of the stuffingbox system to which the rigid pipe M is connected and the rotating intermediate,

sleeve I. The stationary stufling box V makes an air tight connection between the pipe Q and the upper end of the stufiing box casing.

The operation of my invention when embodied in the apparatus above. described is as follows:

The pressure reducing valve E is set to rmit a flow of gas from reservoir K, to establish the desired counter-pressure in the tanks G and T, which counter-pressure is usually 20 pounds to the square inch. The carbonated lilquid enters through the pipe X, branches and X to the bottle filling tank C at said pressure or slightl above it, the level ofliquid therein being etermined by the amount of gas previously admitted. Thereafter there is no flow of gas from reservoir K, unless there is a leakage at the pipe joints and stuffing boxes, in excess of the amount of air disc arged from the bottles and of gas liberated from the liquid. As the liquid flows quietly into tank C, little of its contained gas is so liberated; The tank and bottle handling apparatus are rotated by hand or power and the mouths of the bottles placed on the vertical reciproeating supports R are progressively placed in connectlon with the interior of thetank C so that the air in each bottle is discharged into the tank and the li uid from the tank flows down into the bott e. The air so discharged into the tank being of less specific gravity than the carbonic acid gas therein rises to the upper zone of the bottle filling tank C. The carbonic acid gas being considerably heavier than the air tends to stay in the lower zone where it was originally {delivered from the liquid and from the nozzle F. Any carbonic acid gas liberated from the liquid in the tank C mixes with the stratum of the carbonic gas immediately above the surface of the liquid.

As the air from the bottles is delivered to tank 0 and compressed b the constantly inflowing body of li uid, t is air is forced up through pipes M, into tank T, slightly compressing the gas originally in said tank T. When thisincrease of pressure becomes sufficient to pop the safety valve 0, the excess of air andsuch gas as may have become mixed with it, escapes through the safety valve. The previously described increase of pressure in the tank G has also caused a portion of the gas in the gas zone thereof to bev forced back through pipes N, N, to the lower portion of the second tank T. The result of this arrangement is to maintain a layer of gas, or of a mixture in which the gas largel predominates, in contact with the liquid in the tank C, and to blow Off the air from said tank without producing any violent fluctuations of the pressure therein The fluctuations in pressure produced by the intermittent action of the blow-off safety valve 0, are localized in the separate tank T, and are only slowly and gradually transmitted to the bottling tank C, by reason of the wire drawing 0 the gas and air through the pipes M, N, of relatively small cross-section. If at any time so much leakage occurs in the stufiing box system, or through the joints of the apparatus, that the counter-pressure tends to fall below the predetermined amount, the pressure reducing valve E opens and allows the necessary additional quantity of gas to flow into the system from the reservoir K.

A further advantage of my invention arises from the fact that the range of fluctuations of counter pressure in the bottle filling tank is much less as the blowofl valve 0 operates, from time to time, to discharge the accumulating air, when it is located on the tank T, as shown, than is the case when the valve is on the bottling tank. Consequently there is less liability of the counter pressure falling below the point at which the reducing valve E opens to admit additional gas from reservoir K. Therefore the consumption of carbonic acid gas from reservoir K is less during a given pariod of operation of my invention than is the case in the old arrangement. This I believe to be due to the fact that with the larger volume of gas and air contained in the two tanks as compared with that which would be contained in the tank 0 alone, if the additional tank T were not used, the fall of pressure in the system when blowofl valve 0 opens is slower and more radual and said valve is given time to per orm its closing function and checkthe outflow of gases before the counter pressure has reached a point much below the predetermined amount at which the valve is set to close, whereas, if the volume of trapped gas and airwere onl the smaller amount contained in tank g alone, there would be a greater drop in pressure thereof produced by the outrush of the same volume of the air and gas during an equal period of time before the valve 0 had a chance to react and close the discharge port.

Also the maintaining of a largerpercent age of carbonic acid gas in contact with the surface of the liquid from which it is liberated, than would be the case where my invention is not used,is beneficial to the liquid, as said gas contains fewer impurities than atmospheric air. This retaining of a blanket mainly composed of carbonic acid over the liquid is due to the blowofi connection being made to the upper part of tank O, to which upper portions of said tank the air from the bottles is delivered, tov the slow diffusion between gas given off by the liquid and the air liberated from the bottles, resulting from the relatively quiescent condition of the gaseous contents of the tank resulting in turn from the above stated reduction of fluctuations in the counter pressure.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. In an apparatus for filling bottles with a gas-charged li uid, the combination, with a tank partly filed with suchliquid and means for connecting a bottle mouth with the liquid containing zone of said tank, of a second tank of relatively considerable capacity, a pipe of relatively small cross-section leadin therefrom to a point in the partly fille tank near the top thereof, and a blow-off valve connected to said second tank.

2. A structure such as set out in claim 1, combined with a reservoir of gas under pressure, a connection therefrom to the'gas zone of the first mentioned tank, and a pressure reducing valve in such connection.

3. In an a paratus for filling bottles with carbonated iquid, the combination, with a tank partly filled with such liquid and therein, and a blowofir' valve connecte to the upper portion of the second tank. I 4. A structure such as set forth in claim 3, combined with a reservoir of gas under highenpressure than that designed to be p mainta ned in the two tanks, a connection from said reservoir to the second conduit and a pressure reducing valve in said connect1on.

FRED. MULLER.

Witnesses:

JOHN WILKINS, A. PARKER Sn'rrrn. 

